EXPR

A variable environment manipulation expression parser written in C++20 with flex and bison.

Feature set

1. Evaluate a string of assignment expressions e.g. a := 1; b := 2
2. Strongly typed string, int, float and bool
   1. int and float are implicitly cast in operations
3. Evaluate a single expression with result stored in interpreter.result["expression_result"]
4. Compile an expression into a syntax tree with the expr::compiler and evaluate the tree with expr::interpreter
5. If compiled with the cmake option ENABLE_Z3 you can leverage the z3 theorem prover to solve a satisfiability query
6. Results are expressed in symbol-table variable assignments

Compilation Instructions

This project is compiled through cmake, so you can simply configure the project and make it like so:

mkdir bin && cd bin
cmake .. \
    -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release \
    -DENABLE_Z3=ON  # z3 theorem prover is an opt-in feature
make

Note that because the flex/bison parser is generated at compile-time, your editor might complain about some invalid and/or incomplete types before you've called make. To fix this, simply call make once, and the yy::parser type should be generated for you.

If you want to use the project in your own cmake project, simply include expr as a subdirectory and link with the libexpr library. The project is also tagged with release versions to be compatible with cpm, so if your project uses that, simply include the project like so:

CPMAddPackage("gh:sillydan1/expr@3.0.0")

Examples

Disclaimer: The examples in this section may be outdated. Look at main.cpp for an in-depth example of how to use the library.

This project comes with a demo command line interface called expr_demo so that you can test if the project supports your expression syntax.

$ ./expr_demo -m -
provide an environment. End with <<EOF>> (ctrl+d):
<<
a := 32
>>
provide an expression. End with <<EOF>> (ctrl+d):
<<
b := a / 2
>>
ast:
        > b :-> ROOT[/[a 2 i ]]
evaluated:
        > b :-> 16 i
z3 sat check: (apply these changes to satisfy the expression)
        > not a raw rhs, cannot check for sat

You can also use the project directly in code like so:

expr::symbol_table_t env{};         // provide an environment for identifier lookup(s)
expr::generic_driver d{};           // instantiate default driver (make sure to link with libexpr_generic_driver.so for this
d.parse_expressions("a := 32 + 2"); // parse your expression
auto result = d.get_symbols(env);   // extract the symbol-table 

If you want more direct control, or want to inject some custom code (e.g. override the add/+ operator), you can use the direct API:

using namespace expr;                                  // All elements are in the expr:: namespace
std::string expression = "a := 32+2";                  // Some expression string
std::stringstream stream{expression};                  // inputs must be wrapped in a c++ stream
ast_factory factory{};                                 // Initialize an overridable ast factory
declaration_tree_builder builder{};                    // Initialize an overridable tree builder
scanner sc{stream, std::cerr, &factory};               // Initialize scanner with input stream - write errors to std::cerr
parser_args args{expression, &sc, &factory, &builder}; // Wrap parser arguments
if(parser{args}.parse() != 0)                          // Actually parse the expression(s)
    throw std::logic_error("");                        // something bad happened either throw or handle the error
auto result = builder.build();                         // build the resulting AST(s)

// Now, we can evaluate our built AST(s)
symbol_table_t env{};                                  // Initialize an environment for identifier lookup
symbol_operator op{};                                  // Initialize an overridable operator collection
evaluator e{{env}, op};                                // Initialize an evaluator tree-visitor
symbol_table_t result_env{};
for(auto& r : result.declarations)                     // Extract all the declarations
    result_env[r.first] = e.evaluate(r.second.tree);
for(auto& s : result_env)                              // Print the resulting declarations
    std::cout << s.first << " :-> " << s.second << "\n";
if(result.raw_expression)                              // If the expression is just a RHS expression, print it
    std::cout << e.evaluate(result.raw_expression.value()) << "\n";

Using The Z3 Functionality

If enabled, expr includes an integration with the z3 sat solver. By providing an initial environment, some "unknown"/assignable variables and a boolean expression, expr can provide you with an assignment of the "unknown" variables, such that the boolean expression evaluates to true. This is best explained with an example. The demo binary is a fine place to explore this driver:

$ ./expr_demo --unknown-environment "a := false; b := false; c := false" \
              --expression "a == !(b || c)" 

We ask z3 to find a solution where a would be the same value as the expression !(b || c). Below is the result of the above query.

z3 sat check: (apply these changes to satisfy the expression)
        > a :-> false b
        > b :-> true b
        > c :-> false b

There are in fact more than one solution to this query - you could just as well set c :-> true and the query would still be satisfied. If you want to iterate over all solutions, you can just append every solution you get to your query with a !-operator in front of it, and run the program again.

If you provide a query, where no assignment of the variables would lead to true, the driver will exclaim "unsat" in the terminal, and the result symbol table will be empty:

$ ./expr_demo --unknown-environment "a := false" \
              --expression "a != a" # not satisfiable

z3 sat check: (apply these changes to satisfy the expression)
        > unsatisfiable